After Hogwarts
by Dinosaur1234
Summary: After Hogwarts? There was no 'after Hogwarts'. Entering her final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Lily Evans realizes she must make a choice. Should she return home after school, or stay and fight? Resign herself to ignorance or battle on the front line? The re - emergence of a friendship she thought was gone forever will only complicate matters.


"And after Hogwarts?"

After Hogwarts. Lily had never thought about _after _Hogwarts. It was her home; it had been her home since she was eleven. Of course she loved her parents, and Petunia, but she didn't belong in the Muggle world any more than they did in the wizarding one. They wanted her to get a job, a real job, a Muggle job. After Hogwarts. There was no 'after Hogwarts'.

"Lily, you need to think about this seriously," her mother pleaded from the front seat of the car, "what are you going to do next year? When school is over? Think, Lily. Think about what you really want. A family? For your children to have cousins, grandparents? Great grandparents even – how would we explain it to your grandmother?"

"You want me to live _here_?"

"God forbid," Petunia spat.

Lily was hurt, used to it, but hurt nonetheless. She had always known Tuney was uncomfortable, jealous. Lily couldn't blame her, Lily wouldn't blame her, but sometimes her elder sister made it hard.

"Shut up, Petunia."

"_Lily_," her mother pressed, "well?"

The seatbelt dug into Lily's neck as the car fell silent. In the rear view mirror Lily could see her father's eyes dart rapidly back and forth. Her mother sighed, Petunia looked sour. Lily could understand her mother's anxieties but lost little sleep over it, she hoped there would be more to her life than just children anyway. Mrs Evans was, on the other hand, inconsolable; how would it work, Lily's future? With a head in two different worlds? How would it be possible? Magic had already divided her two children, what would it do to the rest of her family?

The rest of the journey was slow, and carried out in protracted, agonising silence. Lily's heart leapt in relief at the sight of King's Cross Station. It meant Platform Nine and Three Quarters. The Hogwarts Express. Hogsmeade Station. Hogwarts. Home, finally. After two months of the same conversation repeated over and over, she could escape. The car juddered to a halt and Lily dashed out to drag her trunk from the boot. As she clambered up onto the pavement, her family waited expectantly. Watching her.

"So.." Lily began, before her mother wrapped her arms tightly around her.

"Be a good girl, Lily," her mother blinked through heavy tears, "make sure you do your homework. Tell Mary thank you for Squawking Shortbread. It was delicious."

"Ring, if you're worried about anything," her father urged, "they have phones there don't they?"

He always asked this question, every year when dropping Lily off. Mr Evans' youngest daughter smiled.

"Yes, Dad, they do," Lily replied, "but no one knows how to use them."

"You do," he argued.

"Yes, but that's only because I'm Muggle – born, if I was _normal_ –"

Lily regretted saying that. She hadn't meant normal, not normal, just… Well actually, yes, she had meant normal. If she was normal, what she thought was normal now; she _wouldn't_ know what a telephone was. At least not unless she was top of the class in Muggle Studies.

"I didn't mean it in that way," Lily insisted.

"You are normal," Lily's father's lip trembled, "you are a Muggle, and I am. And Mum is, and Tuney. And we're ruddy good at it."

"But I'm a witch too," Lily muttered.

"Witch, smitch," Lily's mother absconded, "you're our daughter, you're one of us. You should be proud of it. You get to be both, much rarer, much more interesting."

"If only everyone else could see it that way."

Lily hadn't told her parents about what was going on at school, what had been brewing in darker corridors for as long as she could remember. They didn't know a thing about You – Know – Who, or his followers, or how much danger they were in. Sometimes Lily felt guilty for not warning them, other times she felt, she _knew_, that ignorance was bliss. They were safer this way, or at least Lily tried to convince herself that was so.

After finally parting ways, Lily hauled her trunk into the station and it wasn't long until she noticed fellow Hogwarts students. They weren't difficult to spot; everyone else had seen them too. They were the children with the heavy trunks blocking everyone's way, and the owls rattling their cages. Luckily however, as the station was busy, no one saw them run at, and disappear into, a large stone wall.

On the other side Lily searched for her friends, they had no way of communicating over the summer holidays and Lily hoped they were meeting her where they usually did. Lily sighed with relief, they were there, waiting at the very end of the platform. Andrea and Mary shrieked with joy, as did Lily, and they jumped into each other's' arms. Once the emotional reunion was over, they boarded the train, claiming the very last compartment in the very last carriage. This choice was purely strategic, the Honeydukes Express always started from the back of the train and therefore those seated there got the most varied selection.

"Where's your brother, Andy?" Lily asked, as they stowed their trunks away, "I thought he was starting this year."

"The conductor was told to seat all the first years together," Andrea replied, laughing, in a thick Irish accent, "something about trying to get them to bond with each other."

"Merlin's beard, thank goodness we didn't have to do that," Mary, unnaturally shy, muttered.

As usual, the Hogwarts Express left promptly, and it wasn't long until the train was charging through the quiet, sleepy countryside, steam billowing in its wake. Andy fell asleep almost immediately but Mary and Lily's considerate, hushed conversation did not last long, and almost as soon as it had begun, Andrea's peaceful slumber was broken by Lily's hyena laugh.

"Arseholes," Andrea mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

Mary opened her mouth to apologise but was interrupted by the sound of bodies crashing down the corridor. A matter of moments later, the heavy footfalls were outside their compartment, and the door was thrown open.

"Get out."

"Screw you, Avery," Andrea snapped, "we were here first."

"Last compartment's ours," a high voice muttered from behind Avery's broad form.

"The last compartment hasn't been yours since we won it in third year, Evan," Mary stated, a sudden surge of bravery overwhelming her.

Avery turned slowly to face her, pleasantly surprised at her outburst.

"It speaks!" he cried in delight, "Y'know I was beginning to think you fancied me Mary, never before have you been able to string two coherent sentences together in my company."

"You wish," Lily replied on Mary's behalf, throwing Avery a dirty look, "now, piss off."

"I wasn't talking to you, Mudblood," Avery snapped.

Andrea rose to her feet, infuriated.

"Is that the worse you can do, Avery?" Lily asked, her eyebrows raised, "after all these years you can't come up with anything more original?"

Avery ignored her. Lily suspected nothing less. She wasn't worth his time, his attention. She was just a Mudblood after all, not worth the mud on his boots.

"Mary," Avery said softly, she squirmed under his gaze, "don't you think we should share?"

"No."

"Mulciber won't like it," Avery cooed.

Mary whimpered.

"Funnily enough," Lily began, "I don't care if –"

"Get out, Evans."

That familiar drawl. Mulciber had arrived.


End file.
